Twitter Inc’s highest-profile users – those with lots of followers or particular prominence – often receive a heightened level of protection from the social network’s content moderators under a secretive programme that seeks to limit their exposure to trolls and bullies.
Code-named Project Guardian, the internal programme includes a list of thousands of accounts most likely to be attacked or harassed on the platform, including politicians, journalists, musicians and professional athletes. When someone flags abusive posts or messages related to those users, the reports are prioritised by Twitter’s content moderation systems, meaning the company reviews them faster than other reports in the queue.